Is working overtime bad for you? Some interesting evidence from Higher education

This interesting article mentioned in the Times Higher last week had the headline do 10 hours of overtime and feel less stressed

It is based on this article.
Fontinha, R., Easton, S., & Van Laar, D. (2019). Overtime and quality of working life in academics and nonacademics: The role of perceived work-life balance. International Journal of Stress Management, 26(2), 173-183.
which used a sample of 1,474 academic and 1,953 nonacademic staff working for 9 higher education institutions. Key factors were the amount of perceived control over work and levels of job satisfaction. there is also an open access version here

How much overtime do British workers do?

The Office for National Statistics has Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). it has data on hours and wages by occupation, gender and region

According to the TUC there was £32 billion unpaid hours put in 2018. They calculated that by occupation teachers put in the most unpaid hours.with an average of 12.1 per week

For a comparison of longer term trends consult the full text of the Working Long Hours: a Review of the Evidence Kodz J, Davis S, Lain D, Strebler M, Rick J, Bates P, Cummings J, Meager N | Employment Relations Research Series ERRS16 | Department of Trade and Industry | Oct 2003. This found that 11% of employees were working over 48 hours per week

Long term trends and international comparisons are also covered in this paper.
Extreme working hours in Western Europe and North America: A new aspect of polarization by Anna S. Burger published in 2015. It analysed extreme working hours in sixteen Western European countries, Canada, and the United States between 1970 and 2010.

In December 2017 the Resolution Foundation published a paper which reviewed the evidence of overtime and policy options. It considers those who depend on overtime to make up their wages, enforced cultures of long hours working and the payment of overtime

What is the impact of overtime on health and well-being?

Good evidence can often be found in systematic reviews of literature. This recent title Working hours and the onset of depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Occupational and Environmental Medicine . Ultimately it found that "The effect of overtime work on depressive disorder remains inconclusive and may be small if not negligible"

Cochrane has a recent review on Flexible working conditions and their effects on employee health and wellbeing . it found a lack of evidence on overtime but the amount of studies screened was low and needed further investigation. however it was felt that.
'flexibility in working patterns which gives the worker more choice or control is likely to have positive effects on health and wellbeing.'